Religious Values
Belief in a Spiritual Being, a God-figure who resides in some space outside of human imagining but which has dominion over the affairs of humanity; indeed is the originator of humanity, can doubtless be a good thing. Those who don't believe in an omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful God appear to be making those of religious dedication intensely uncomfortable of late. And that's really quite a shame, on a number of levels.The first of which is that belief in an Almighty comes with a set of instructions, some notable behavioural restrictions and admonitions, precepts that wise men (and presumably women) of antiquity thought long and hard on and settled as a prescription for groups of people to live together in a semblance of harmony, worshipping a common spiritual figure, under the guidance of a religious clerical interlocutor.
This was a very effective way in which to control the excesses of humanity, a way to instill moral values, and normative ethics.
It seems that of late, agnostics and perhaps more particularly atheists, themselves long held in contempt by organized religion, have become too vocal for comfort in denouncing the Church and its social constrictions in an age where a greater acceptance of non-conformance in a more relaxed social atmosphere has become the norm. And that, in a way, is unfortunate.
While the Church decries the immorality and decadence of modernity, refusing to acknowledge the possibility that there are other, acceptable ways that people can live together in harmony, it continues to denounce those who live freely as same-sex couples, contraception use, women who seek abortions; in short acrimoniously airing their prejudices in a society that views religion as a quaint left-over from another age.
Faith has been challenged increasingly in many societies world over. Except for those countries founded on their particular faiths, and where the faithful practise a rigid interpretation of social values and prohibitions. And where, as a result, the justice related to human freedoms and self-reliance and self-determination are truncated, to the point of oppression.
Those of faith accuse their societies of succumbing to a degeneration of ethics and morals, because they have rejected traditions in favour of individual freedoms. This is a situation that has afflicted all major religious faiths in free democratic countries of the West. Isn't it just so human? That the religious and the secular cannot live in peace side by side without criticizing one another?
Religion cannot abide the sight of defiance of its elemental proscriptions, taking it as a slight to God, even though those that practise a different way of life do not believe in God. And secularists, witnessing the strictures imposed upon the faithful deplore the loss of individual choices and freedoms, and react with withering disgust at the lack of free will.
The thing of it is, if people are able to live as they wish, without the intervention of a heavenly overseer, while at the same time identifying themselves as sympathetic to societal needs, practising ethical and moral standards, they feel they have no need of God. While those who remain faithful to their religion, may require the guidance of a Heavenly Father to encourage them to embrace ethical and moral standards.
In the end, don't most people of good will, religious or secular, arrive at a like conclusion?
Labels: Religion, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ Monday, December 08, 2008
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